Serum-therapy of plague in India : a record of work brought up to date / by Khan Bahadur N. H. Choksy.

  • Choksy, Khan Bahadur N. H.
Date:
1907
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Serum-therapy of plague in India : a record of work brought up to date / by Khan Bahadur N. H. Choksy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    cases must, clepoutl solely for such selection upon the state of the circulation of the patient as indicated by the pulse, and that all other factors, however favourable they may appear, must be count- ed of subordinate or small value. His selection must bo, by this the only method—and not from the low range of temperature, nor from the lesser number of pulsations, nor from the frequency of respiration, nor from the type of plague, nor from the position of bubo, &c.. Such a method has been tried and with what results we shall see further. 13. The above review of the conclusions of our critics implies that the serums have not been fortunate in them and that they have failed to take a fair and unbiassed view of the subject, and to realise the imperfections of a system totally unsuited and inapplic- able to a disease like plague, and rather than honestly admit its imperfections have attributed the unsatisfactory results to the in- efficacy of the serums. It cannot be contended by them that they have discharged their duties impartiallv, inasmuch as they do not appear to have taken any pains to investigate whether the serums are really so devoid of beneficial effects as to be ineffica- cious in all cases and under all circumstances. They have not acknowledged the facts disclosed by their own analysis, and have not had the fairness to admit, as they ought to have, that the serums have considerable effect in reducing the mortality of cases that are not septicoemic. They have ignored the results of cases treated by other and more rational methods and in private practice and have not been able to challenge by a single observation or argument the recital of almost marvellous and instantaneous bene- ficial effects exerted by the serums on cases treated on the first day of the disease. In fact, whilst they have willingly, nay rather too eagerly, accepted all evidence against the serums, they have not even half-heartedly acknowledged that there was other evidence in its favour. The whole subject has been looked into by these critics from the narrow standpoint of the laboratory and the * bacteriologists (one of them not even a medical man) have drawn their conclusions, not from the evidence of living patients, bnt from the dead and .soulless sheaves of papers, but imperfectly and hurriedly inscribed by the over-worked nurses in the storm and stress of the plague epidemics. The combined experience and observations of the clinician, long familiar with the disease in all its phases have been set at naught, and the wwd of the bacterio-